Magic Meanies

Personal Computer News

Lasting Appeal 4/5

Playability 4/5

Use Of Machine 4/5

Overall Value 4/5

Mike Gerrard 4/5

NAME: Magic Meanies SYSTEM: Any Spectrum PRICE: £5.95 PUBLISHER: CDS Microsystem, [redacted] FORMAT: Cassette LANGUAGE: Basic OTHER VERSIONS: None OUTLETS: Mail order/retail. KEEP ON RUNNING Magic Meanies is one of those games that comes along once in a while and shows that a simple idea. If tackled with flair and a touch of humour, can be a winner. OBJECTIVES You are the inevitable little man, and when the game begins you're on a screen in which a path has been partly cut out. You can move anywhere, but will automatically create a new path as you go, down which you are pursued by a number of meanies while you try to reach a number of goodies scattered about the screen. Your aim is simply to survive, collect the goodies and progress upwards through ever-harder screens. IN PLAY A lovely additional touch is the music, which is a jaunty plink-along version of the extract from Orpheus in the Underworld better know for accompanying the Can-Can. If this gets too much for you then you can switch it off at the start. The opening menu also gives you the chance to elect for keyboard or Kempston joystick control and to choose from the nine skill levels available. Of these, even the easiest is hard while the hardest is so fast it had me falling about laughing at its manic music and Formula One meanies. As protection against these deadly creatures you are equipped with five crystal balls per screen which you can fire at them. The only other way of dealing with the deadlies is to drop something on their heads. In addition to the diamonds you're collecting there are also several bags of gold. If you clear a path underneath these they drop to the bottom of the screen, taking any meanies with them. The pleasure of a squashed meanie is short-lived as another one soon materialises to take its place. The other use for the bags is to have them fall and block a path. If you're on one side and the meanies are on the other then you can gather up a few diamonds in peace, but the lay-out of the maze has been carefully designed so that this is only easy to do on the left-hand side of the screen, the right-hand side being a loop where you can only escape the meanies by using your two legs and your five balls. My one complaint is that the man doesn't respond quite perfectly to the joystick, and there's sometimes a delay: you're pushing frantically upwards while he's still beating his head against a brick wall on the right. Other than that the game is excellent. VERDICT Another winner from CDS, which recently did well with its version of Pool.

Your Spectrum

John Hall 7/10

Mark Knight 8/10

Tony Samuels 8/10

Your Spectrum is continuing to scour the country's computer clubs to get the undiluted thoughts, feelings and impressions of dedicated games enthusiasts - thus providing our readers with unbiased evaluations. Any club wishing to offer their reviewing services should contact Ron Smith, Spectrum Soft, [redacted]. This month we visited the Heald Green Computer Club (which meets fortnightly at the Public Hall, [redacted], on Wednesdays from 7.30 to 10.30pm). Three of the club's leading members each played the games we gave them for review and in some cases found them so well-conceived and written, went completely over the top with the superlatives. In others, the games were deemed to be re-hashes of old ideas and evaluated accordingly. The club was formed four months ago, and has already managed to attract over 40 enthusiasts. All members are being brought up to the same standard of proficiency by the more experienced members who are running formal courses in both Basic and machine code. Membership is offered at a very reasonable rate, and all enquiries should be referred to Tony Samuels on [redacted] (after 6pm). Tony, incidentally, is currently working on a new program for the Spectrum (called Ugh - see Rumbles in this issue) which will be available from Softek in the near future. MAGIC MEANIES CDS Microsystems £5.95 This is one of those tunnelling maze games where the player's character - a wizard - makes his own maze as he goes. The idea is to defeat the magic meanies whilst picking up all the lead which can be transformed into gold.

Read it at Your Spectrum Unofficial Archive

Big K

Overall 2/3

Richard Burton 2/3

MAKER: CDS Micro Systems MACHINE: Spectrum FORMAT: cassette PRICE: £5.95 Amazing what you can do with five crystal balls, four magic apples and a bit of creative writing. Why, you could almost convince someone this is not another variation on the well worn Dig Dug theme. The action is, we are told, set in the lead mines of the ancient mystic land of Zeldor. Here Good Wizard Meltec tunnels about carrying out his eternal quest for lead (blue blobs) which he can change into gold. The mines are, of course, guarded by evil magic meanies (reject space invaders) who chase Meltec all over the place giving the poor chap a very hard time and using up one of his three lives each time they catch him. Meltec's magic doesn't work on Zeldor (so why make him a magician?) so he has to resort to the five crystal balls which he can fire at the meanies and the four magic apples which are scattered about the play area. The only thing 'magic' about these is that they can be dropped on the meanies to squash them (score extra points for this) or used to block their path. The crystal balls are only effective at long range as Meltec has to face his attacker. Most of the time he's on the run with a meanie hot on his heels and no time to turn and fire. Graphics are good and speed can be varied over nine skill levels. Sound is good if you can bear the 'Can-Can' repeated endlessly. (My gratitude to the programmer for providing an on-off facility for the sound.) There's also a very good high-score table which can be copied to the printer for those who want to frame their achievements. A fun game, yes. Magic... not really.

Crash

Overall 58%

Producer: CDS, 16K £5.95 (2) Despite the inlay blurb of times past and wizardry renewed, this is no adventure game. In fact a good version of the 'Dig Dug' type of mining game, where your man creates his own tunnels in search of valuables and thus his own maze, and gets chased by meanies. You're in control of Meltec (a wizard) who is seeking lumps of lead. There is also a wandering cherry on each screen which he must collect to progress to the next screen. The meanies set off chasing him up his self-created pathways - to get rid of them he can undermine the red apples and drop them on the meanies, or at least block off a pathway before dashing onto the next blue lump of lead. The graphics are quite small, one character size and they move jerkily, but the games attraction lies in the skill and quick thinking required to outwit the meanies. Sensible control keys, joystick: Kempston, 9 skill levels in speed and progressive difficulty, above average. Overall CRASH rating 58% M/C.

Read it at Crash - The Online Edition

Personal Computer Games

Graphics 5/10

Sound 6/10

Ease Of Use 8/10

Originality 8/10

Lasting Interest 7/10

Overall 7/10

Wensley Dale 7/10

MACHINE: Spectrum 16K JOYSTICK: Kempston CATEGORY: Arcade SUPPLIER: CDS Micro Systems PRICE: £5.95 The wizard on the cover of Magic Meanies looks as if he belongs to an adventure game. In fact, he's yet another graduate of the Pac-Man Horace academy, in yet another variation of the maze game. As Meltec the Wizard you're on a screen liberally sprinkled with lead, which you must collect, and Meanies, which you must avoid. A do-it-yourself maze emerges as your passage cuts a path through the brilliant green screen, and along such paths the Meanies wander. The object is to collect all the lead and a roaming bunch of cherries. Apples are embedded in the screen, and will fall vertically down any paths cut. By passing beneath an apple with a Meanie on your tail, you can block his path as the apple drops down. Another way of dealing with Meanies is to zap them with crystal balls, which are floated lugubriously, rather than fired, in the direction of motion. The game has nine skill levels, each faster, and a succession of screens, all fairly similar but with successively more Meanies. If you don't have a Kempston joystick, a convenient choice of keyboard keys has been made, and all the action happens to the accompaniment of the can-can dance music. Clearly, this engaging music is entirely irrelevant to the concept of the game, as is the mumbo jumbo about wizards, but it's not a bad brew that results.

Sinclair User

Gilbert Factor 2/10

Memory: 16K Price: £5.95 Joystick: Kempston Magic Meanies, for the 16K Spectrum, gives CDS Micro Systems an opportunity to produce yet another version of Pacman, although this time there is not even a maze. CDS has dressed-up the concept a little by calling the Pac-man Meltec and giving him hero status. Meltec has to collect all the lead and cherries in the various levels of the game, being careful not to fall into the hands of the meanies which can move around the paths he has created. To get rid of a meanie being particularly dastardly you can fire one of five crystal balls. You can also block their paths by dropping cherries in their way. After you have completed one screen you will find another, and another, and another, which all look similar in makeup. Once you have finished you will find yourself on the high-score table which looks interesting until you discover you have to experiment to use it. The author tells you that you must use up, down, left and right keys to compose your name but there is no information how to dolt. Magic Meanies ranks as one of the poorer pieces of machine-coded software and has little to commend it. It can be obtained from CDS Micro Systems.

Read it at Sinclair User Magazine Online

Crash

Use of Computer 60%

Graphics 45%

Playability 68%

Getting Started 58%

Addictive Qualities 60%

Value For Money 55%

Overall 58%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: C.D.S. Memory Required: 16K Retail Price: £5.95 Language: Machine code This game is a good copy of an old arcade favourite, on the whole a not much copied game as yet. Blaby did a version, called Gold Digger, and in most respects this is very similar, although it boasts a rather splendid continuous music sound track. The object of the game is to control your little wizard Meltec through underground caverns which he himself creates as he goes. Dotted about are lumps of lead, resembling blue diamonds, which are to be collected for points. There are also red apples (underground?) which can be pushed along an existing tunnel and made to squash the meanies by dropping them down a shaft, or one can be used to block a tunnel by undermining it. Meanies can also be killed by firing one of your five crystal balls at them. Killing meanies adds to your points. There's also a cherry on each screen which must be collected. This goes wandering about the place in a most distracted, not to say distracting manner. Clearing a screen of lead and cherry takes you on a level to more meanies. COMMENTS Control keys: Q/Z up down, I/P left/right, M fires Joystick: Kempston Keyboard play: very responsive Colour. average Graphics: small, 1-characters size, but quite fast Sound: good Skill levels: 9 speeds, rising difficulty Lives: 3

Hot on your tail come the Magic Meanies.